Muhsen AlMustafa, a researcher assistant specializing in civil-military relations at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, told Enab Baladi that the regime began about three years ago to demobilize a number of conscripts after they had spent years in reserve service.

He continued that the regime’s plan began to take shape about a year ago through issuing administrative orders to demobilize more reservists, in addition to the announcement by Major General Ahmad Suleiman, the director general of the General Administration at the Ministry of Defense in the regime’s government, about the intention to close the reserve service file and build a “professional army” based on volunteers.

AlMustafa pointed out that the regime’s current goal focuses on rebuilding the necessary human resources for the army primarily from volunteers, with the later aim of reducing reliance on conscripts, whether through mandatory or reserve service. The researcher noted that this step came because the regime realized, after years of the Syrian uprising, that those in compulsory service cannot be heavily relied upon due to the many defections and the widespread reluctance to join the army.